On 3 September 2026, experts from industry, research institutions and public authorities gathered at TU Dortmund University for the 21st Dortmunder AutoTag. The annual event is organized by the Institute of Control Theory and Systems Engineering under the leadership of 6GEM+ partner Prof. Torsten Bertram. This year's program covered a broad range of topics around automated and connected driving, including teleoperation, operational approvals for autonomous vehicles, human-machine interaction and the use of AI in traffic management. A professional exhibition and a poster session complemented the talks.
6GEM+ was prominently represented in the poster session with three contributions, showing how future 6G networks can serve as a key enabler for connected and automated mobility.
The Chair of Communication Networks (ComNets) at TU Dortmund presented the Digital Triplet, a testing environment developed in close cooperation with the Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) at RWTH Aachen University and the Design Automation of Embedded Systems group at TU Dortmund. The Digital Triplet is a testing environment that synchronizes a full-scale research vehicle, a fleet of scaled vehicles connected via an Open RAN network and a co-simulation. It supports the reliable and reproducible development of 6G-based applications such as teleoperated driving and cooperative platooning.
Two further posters came from the Institute of Control Theory and Systems Engineering at TU Dortmund. The first presented a hybrid framework that combines gradient-based optimization with dynamical systems to enable secure maneuvering of vehicles via teleoperation. The second addressed collaborative environment perception in connected mobility. In this approach, vehicles share their sensor information over the network to jointly build a more complete picture of their surroundings.
Together, the three contributions show the interdisciplinary character of 6GEM+. Communication network research, control engineering and automotive engineering come together to jointly address the requirements of future connected mobility. The posters attracted strong interest from visitors from both industry and academia and led to lively discussions about transferring 6G research into automotive applications.
